David Ortiz and the Boston Red Sox, baseball's bearded wonders, capped their remarkable turnaround by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 in Game 6 on Wednesday night to win their third World Series championship in 10 seasons.

When it was over, Ortiz took a microphone on the field and addressed the city, just as he did a week after the Boston Marathon bombings in April.

"This is for you, Boston. You guys deserve it," the Series MVP said. "We've been through a lot this year, and this is for all of you and all those families who struggled."

And the Red Sox didn't even have to fly the trophy home. For the first time since Babe Ruth's team in 1918, Boston won the title at Fenway. The 101-year-old stadium, oldest in the majors, was packed with 38,447 singing, shouting fans anticipating a party building for more than nine decades.

"Maybe they won't have to go another 95 years," said John Farrell, a champion in his first season as Boston's manager.

Shane Victorino, symbolic of these resilient Sox, returned from a stiff back and got Boston rolling with a three-run double off the Green Monster against rookie sensation Michael Wacha. Pumped with emotion, Victorino pounded his chest with both fists three times.

John Lackey became the first pitcher to start and win a Series clincher for different teams, allowing one run over 6 2/3 innings 11 years after his Game 7 victory as an Angels rookie in 2002.

With fans roaring on every pitch and cameras flashing, Koji Uehara struck out Matt Carpenter for the final out. Uehara jumped into the arms of catcher David Ross while Red Sox players rushed from the dugout and bullpen as the Boston theme "Dirty Water" played on the public-address system.

There wasn't the "Cowboy Up!" comeback charm of "The Idiots" from 2004, who swept St. Louis to end an 86-year title drought. There wasn't that cool efficiency of the 2007 team that swept Colorado.

This time, the Red Sox were "Boston Strong" -- playing for a city shaken by tragedy.

"We've dealt with a lot," Dustin Pedroia said. "But our team came together."

After a late-season collapse in 2011, the embarrassing revelations of a chicken-and-beer clubhouse culture that contributed to the ouster of manager Terry Francona, and the daily tumult of Bobby Valentine's one-year flop, these Red Sox grew on fans.

Just like the long whiskers on the players' faces, starting with Jonny Gomes' scruffy spring training beard.

"As soon as we went to Fort Myers, the movie's already been written," Gomes said. "All we had to do was press play, and this is what happened."

David Ortiz lifts Koji Uehara into the air after the closer sealed the Red Sox's third title in 10 seasons.

The only player remaining from the 2004 champs, Ortiz had a Ruthian World Series. He batted .688 (11-for-16) with two homers, six RBIs and eight walks -- including four in the finale -- for a .760 on-base percentage in 25 plate appearances, the second-highest in Series history.

"We have a lot of players with heart. We probably don't have the talent that we had in '07 and '04, but we have guys that are capable [of staying] focused and [doing] the little things," Ortiz said.

Even slumping Stephen Drew delivered a big hit in Game 6, sending Wacha's first pitch of the fourth into the right-center bullpen for a 4-0 lead. By the time the inning was over, RBI singles by Mike Napoli and Victorino had made it 6-0, and the Red Sox were on their way.

"Hey, I missed two games. It's time to shine," Victorino said.

All over New England, from Connecticut's Housatonic River up to the Aroostook in Maine, Boston's eighth championship can be remembered for the beard-yanking bonding.

Fans bid up the average ticket price to more than $1,000 on the resale market, and some prime seat locations went for more than $10,000 each. Nearly all the Red Sox rooters stood in place for 30 minutes after the final out to view the presentation of the trophy and MVP award. A few thousand remained when a beaming Ortiz returned to the field with his son 75 minutes after the final out.

"It was an awesome atmosphere here," Lackey said.

The win capped an emotional season for the Red Sox, one heavy with the memory of the events that unfolded on Patriots Day, when three people were killed and more than 260 wounded in bombing attacks at the Boston Marathon. The Red Sox wore "Boston Strong" logos on their left sleeves, erected a large emblem on the Green Monster and moved the logo into the center-field grass as a constant reminder.

"There's I think a civil responsibility that we have wearing this uniform, particularly here in Boston," Farrell said. "And it became a connection initially, the way our guys reached out to individuals or to hospital visits. And it continued to build throughout the course of the season. I think our fans, they got to a point where they appreciated the way we played the game, how they cared for one another. And in return, they gave these guys an incredible amount of energy to thrive on in this ballpark."

Boston's Strongest

David Ortiz reached base in 19 of 25 plate appearances against the Cardinals, giving him the second-highest OBP in a World Series. Here are the top 5:

Year

Player

OBP

1990

Billy Hatcher

.800

2013

David Ortiz

.760

1928

Lou Gehrig

.706

2002

Barry Bonds

.700

1919

Ivey Wingo

.700

Ortiz carried a Red Sox offense that finished with the second-lowest batting average by a Series winner since 1969:

Year

Team

BA

1972

Athletics

.209

2013

Red Sox

.211

1974

Athletics

.211

1973

Athletics

.212

1983

Orioles

.213

-- ESPN Stats & Information

Red, white and blue fireworks exploded over the ballpark as commissioner Bud Selig presented the World Series trophy to Red Sox owners John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino, leaving a haze over the field.

"When the fireworks went off at the presentation of the trophy out there, when the ballpark was filled with smoke, it was completely surreal," Farrell said. "To be in this position, given where we've come from, reflecting back a year ago at this time, there's been a lot that's happened in 13 months."

Players then put on goggles for a champagne celebration in the cramped clubhouse.

"They just found ways to win," Henry said. "At some point, you have to think there's something special happening here."

Among the players blamed for the indifferent culture at the end of the Francona years, Lackey took the mound two days shy of the second anniversary of his elbow surgery and got his first Series win since the 2002 clincher. He took a shutout into the seventh, when Carlos Beltran's RBI single ended the Cardinals' slump with runners in scoring position at 0-for-14.

St. Louis had been seeking its second title in three seasons, but the Cardinals sputtered after arriving in Boston late Tuesday following a seven-hour flight delay caused by mechanical problems. Symbolic of the team's struggles, reliever Trevor Rosenthal tripped while throwing a pitch to Ortiz in the eighth, balking Pedroia to second.

"There were some frustrated guys in there, but overall you can't ask us to go about it any better than how our guys did," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "Not too many people expected us to do what we did."

Wacha entered 4-0 with a 1.00 ERA in his postseason career but gave up six runs, five hits and four walks in 3 2/3 innings, the shortest start of the 22-year-old's big league career.

SportsNation: Red Sox win World Series

"I just made too many mistakes," he said. "It doesn't matter how hard you're throwing if you can't locate it."

Boston was a 30-1 underdog to win the World Series last winter but joined the 1991 Minnesota Twins as the only teams to win titles one season after finishing in last place. Now, the Red Sox will raise another championship flag before their home opener next season, April 4 against Milwaukee.

Boston hit just .211, the lowest average for a Series champion in 39 years and 13 points lower than the Cardinals. But after falling behind 2-1 in the Series on the first game-ending obstruction call in postseason history, the Red Sox tied it the following night on the first game-ending pickoff in postseason play. That sparked the Red Sox to three to more wins and another title.

Boston also won the Series at Fenway Park in 1912. The Red Sox won the first World Series in 1903 at the Huntington Avenue Grounds and in 1916 at Braves Field. ... Catfish Hunter and Jimmy Key each won Series clinchers for two clubs, as a starter and reliever. ... David Freese, the 2011 World Series MVP, hit .158 (3-for-19) with no RBIs.

Most Career Bases-Loaded Hits - World Series History

The Red Sox won the WS despite a BA of .211, the lowest by a World Series winner since the 1972 A's (.209).

The Red Sox finished with a team ERA of 1.84 in the World Series, the lowest by an AL team in a single World Series since the 1983 Orioles (1.60), who also won.

John Lackey is the 2nd pitcher to allow at least 9 hits and no more than 1 run in a World Series clinching game. The other was Spud Chandler in 1943 for the Yankees.

The Red Sox offense has delivered in the later innings in this series...
89 batters and only 17 hits in the first 5 innings, without a home run...
But from the 6th inning on: 16 hits and 13 runs scored, and all 3 of their homers -- including Johnny Gomes' huge shot in Game 4.

Oldest Players to Win World Series MVP - MLB History

Shane Victorino is the 3rd player with 2 bases-loaded hits in a single World Series game. The others were the Tigers Billy Rogell in 1934 Game 4 and the Yankees Bobby Richardson in 1960 Game 3.

Shane Victorino is 2nd player in last 20 seasons with 4+ RBI in a World Series clincher, along with Hideki Matsui (6 RBI) in 2009 for Yankees. The last player to do it without a HR was Paul Richardson in 1945 for Tigers.

Made final out of past World Series - GW RBI in future World Series clincher

From Elias: Tonight, Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha will try to become the 7th rookie in MLB history to win a World Series game in which his team faced elimination.
The last player to do so? Red Sox Game 6 starter John Lackey, who was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series with the Angels.

Won World Series Start Facing Elimination - Rookies in Postseason History

David Ortiz is the seventh player to draw four walks in a World Series game. The most recent three occurrences were by Doug DeCinces of the Orioles (1979), Jackie Robinson in 1952, and Babe Ruth in 1926. Three of the walks were intentional; only three players have done that in a WS game-- Albert Pujols (2011), Barry Bonds (2002), and Rudy York (also for the Red Sox) in 1946.

Should John Lackey earn the victory tomorrow, he'd be just the 7th player in baseball history to win multiple World Series-clinching games as a starting pitcher and the only one to do so for different teams.

Won Multiple World Series-Clinching Games - Starting Pitchers in Postseason History

From Elias: Entering tonight, the largest deficit overcome in a World Series game by a team facing elimination is 5 by the 2002 Angels in Game 6.
The largest deficit overcome in any postseason game by a team facing elimination is 7 by the 2008 Red Sox in ALCS Game 5.

Michael Wacha is the first starter to allow six or more runs in the deciding game of a World Series since 1967. In Game 7 that year, Jim Lonborg of the Red Sox allowed seven runs (six earned) TO the Cardinals and took the loss.